Mr Michael W. Meier

Michael Meier is an experienced international law attorney with a career in government and academia. He is an adjunct professor at Georgetown University Law Center (GULC) and an Associate Fellow at Geneva Centre for Security Policy.  
In 2023, Mr. Meier retired from his position as the senior civilian advisor to the Army Judge Advocate General on matters related to the Law of War, where he advised on the law of war, legal reviews of proposed new weapons and weapons systems, and also served as a member of the Department of Defense Law of War Working Group. 

Prior to returning to the Army, Mr. Meier served as an Attorney-Adviser with the Office of the Legal Adviser for Political-Military Affairs, U.S. Department of State, from 2009-2016. He served as the primary legal adviser to the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls regarding the transfer and commercial sales of defense articles and services. In addition, he provided advice on the application of the law of war to U.S. military operations and weapons issues, and supported U.S. diplomatic initiatives In addition, Mr. Meier served as Head of the U.S. Delegation to the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons for expert meetings on Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems (LAWS) and as a member of the U.S. Delegation for the Arms Trade Treaty. From 1986 to 2009, Mr. Meier served as an Army Judge Advocate and retired at the rank of Colonel. He served in a variety of positions, including the senior legal advisor for Fort Carson, Colorado and as the Principal Deputy Legal Counsel to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. 

Mr. Meier earned his JD from St. Mary’s University School of Law. He also holds an LL.M. (Taxation) from Georgetown University Law Center and an LL.M. (Military Law) from The Judge Advocate General’s Legal Center and School. He also holds a MS in National Strategic Studies from the Army War College. Mr. Meier has written extensively on topics related to international humanitarian law, including topics such as lethal autonomous weapons. His articles have been published in the Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law, Temple International and Comparative Law Journal, Southwestern Journal of International Law, and The Journal of National Security Law and Foreign Policy (Georgetown), as well as blog posts in Just Security and Articles of War. He has also written several chapters for books on topics of international humanitarian law. Most recently, he co-authored a textbook, The Law of Armed Conflict:  An Operational Approach, published by Aspen Publishing in July 2026.